Economy

• Eradicate the structural current budget deficit by 2017/18 and have debt falling as a percentage of national income.

Frances Perraudin: This, by the Liberal Democrats’ own admission, is a position that sits somewhere in the middle of the two biggest parties. Nick Clegg uses every opportunity to say that his party would cut less than the Tories and borrow less than Labour, providing a government of the former with heart and a government of the latter with back bone.

Transport

Tax

FP: Raising the income tax threshold to £10,000 was one of the Liberal Democrats’ most prized achievements in coalition. David Cameron said it wasn’t possible in the runup to the election in 2010, but now seems quite proud of the policy. So much so that the Conservatives promised on Monday to make sure that people earning the minimum wage (currently £6.50 an hour) wouldn’t pay any income tax at all.

• Restrict access to non-dom status, by ending the right to inherit it.

FP: Ed Miliband dominated headlines last week when he announced Labour plans to abolish non-domicile tax status. Clegg was quick to place himself in the centre ground, saying that inherited non-dom status made no sense, but that the quirk of British tax law, introduced by William Pitt the Younger in the late 18th century, served a purpose. “It’s like so much in life, you’ve just got to strike the right balance,” he said.

Childcare

• Extend shared parental leave with a “use it or lose it” month for fathers.

• Extend free childcare to all two-year-olds for working families.

Clegg sets out terms of any coalition deal as he launches Lib Dem manifesto

Read more

• Commit to 20 hours free childcare a week for parents with children aged two to four.

Benefit

• Remove eligibility for the winter fuel payment and free TV licence from pensioners who pay tax at the higher rate.

Work

• Conduct a review of the fairness of the work capability assessment and personal independence payment assessments.

• Legislate to maintain the triple lock on pensions - to increase the state pension by the highest of earnings growth, prices growth or at least 2.5%.

Freedom of information

Lib Dems are only alternative to 'coalition of grievance', says Nick Clegg

Health

How much of the Liberal Democrats' 2010 election manifesto was implemented?

Read more

FP: The Liberal Democrats were the first to bite the bullet and announce that they would give the NHS the £8bn that health service chief Simon Stevens said it would need. The party even went as far to put the pledge on the front of its manifesto, a space reserved for policies they are determined to implement in a future coalition. The Conservatives have now said they would match the Lib Dems’ spending commitments, but haven’t set out what they would cut to pay for it. Labour has stuck to its original offer of £2.5bn, plus a range of measures they say will improve the health care landscape.

• Invest £500m in mental healthcare and introduce waiting time standards in line with physical health.

Housing

• Set a goal of 300,000 homes a year, including 10 new garden cities in areas where homes are most needed.

FP: Just like NHS spending on the NHS, political parties have been desperately trying to outbid each other on housebuilding. Labour has pledged to be building 200,000 houses a year by 2020, whereas the Conservative party has said it would build 200,000 homes a year by 2017 – three years sooner than Labour. The Liberal Democrats want to be building 300,000 as soon as possible, but by the end of the parliament at the latest.

• New rent to own homes where your monthly payments steadily buy you a stake in the property.

Equal rights

Democracy

• Enforce a £10,000 cap on donations to political parties.

• Give 16-year-olds the vote.

• Reform voting systems at local and national level to ensure more proportional representation.

FP: It’s interesting that this is still in the Liberal Democrat manifesto, though it is included in quite loose terms. It is presented as a general aim for “more proportional representation”, with no target date by which voting reform could be introduced. Nick Clegg always says that while he was obviously disappointed by the result of the 2011 referendum on AV (a key part of the coalition deal), he accepts that result (68% voted against) was conclusive.